Apple Vision Pro Mindfulness App May Get 'Respiration Tracking' Feature

Apple is working on a new "respiration tracking" feature for Apple Vision Pro that is likely to be functional during mindfulness sessions, based on backend code discovered by MacRumors.

Contributor Aaron Perris found references to the previously unheard-of feature in lines of code related to the headset's Mindfulness app, which offers users an immersive meditation experience using either guided meditations or self-guided sessions.

Apple's Mindfulness app essentially encourages the user to cultivate awareness of their own breath to support mental wellbeing. Attention to breathing is generally considered to be a foundational component of mindfulness practice, and long-term mindfulness training is associated with reliable differences in resting respiration rate, according to empirical research.

Apple Watch can already track respiration rate while wearers are sleeping. Apple Watch uses its built-in accelerometer, which measures vibration and movement, to determine how many times a person breathes each minute. While the Vision Pro also has an accelerometer, it's unclear whether this hardware or sensors that track changes in facial musculature would be involved when a mindfulness session is in progress.

There's no information suggesting if or when the feature could make an appearance, but Apple is expected to announce visionOS 2 at its annual developers conference, WWDC, which begins next week, June 10.